apzijlstra Reviews

Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

So good and yet so bad

[7/10 · 1 February 2012]

The 229 minute version of Once Upon a Time in America is too long because there is a repetitiveness in the presentation of the themes. Having said that, it is also true that the attention to detail and the lavish sets make the nearly four our of watching never a chore. Then there is also Robert De Niro who lifts the movie above an ordinary gangster flick. Arguably, one of the best things about the movie is the music, but since God Bless America was used so movingly in the ending of The Deer Hunter (also with De Niro), it was in poor taste to use it as the final song six years later again so stridently. The actors playing the gangsters as boys and those playing the gangsters as adults are all fine. With all that, what a pity that the movie finally fails. It does so in the sense that the ending is a farce, something that sits poorly with an epic movie, and it does so in the sense that it makes the mistake of practicing alchemy, of distilling friendship and love and sensitivity from a group of extraordinary vicious men, murderers whose sense of humor is expressed in swapping babies in a nursery. The viewer is asked to believe that these cockroaches are capable of great sensitivity. Deborah calls one of them a cockroach early on and she should have taken herself more seriously for she could have known she was right. The director wanted it both ways, violence and love undiluted from the same source. Kiss kiss, bang bang: it can be done, but not like this.

Doubt (I) (2008)

matching superb acting talent with a fine script.

[9/10 · 27 January 2012]

Hollywood is like the child of whom it is said, "when it is good, it is very very good, and when it is bad, it is horrid." Well, in the movie Doubt we have Hollywood at its finest. The casting is perfect. Meryl Streep transforms herself into the antipathetic principal of the school, whom she plays so convincingly that we grind our teeth. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the sympathetic priest with a believability such that the drama between these two characters, thanks to an intelligent and engaging script, brings home to us the terrible consequences of uncharitableness. The clash between priest and principal in the principal's office is played superlatively by Streep and Hoffman. As to the supporting cast: With wide-eyed innocence, Amy Adams plays Sister James, who functions in the drama as the person of goodwill who struggles to find out what's what. Accolades also for Viola Davis, who plays the mother of the boy who's the victim of the struggle. Good acting and script need good cinematography to make a good movie. The opening shot shows a street in the bleak morning light. As a still it belongs in a museum for photography, as an establishing shot it sets the mood. As the mood grows colder, the street becomes snow-covered. The scenes in the chapel and the office are deceptively simple, but wonderfully rich in setting the scene for priest and principal.

Whale Rider (2002)

a sentimental fairy tale

[6/10 · 26 January 2012]

There is, of course, nothing wrong with a movie version of a fairy tale, but what is wrong with Whale Rider is that it presents the fairy tale as if it were reality. A little bit of sentimentality is not so bad, but if it takes the place of deep felt sentiment, then there is something wrong. Sentimentality is a short cut to the emotions. In Whale Rider, real problems of indigenous people attempting to live meaningful lives in a profoundly changed world, are made a mockery of by an unrealistic staging and a solution which makes one think of the choo-choo train that said "I can, I can" and therefore could. But, you see, the little girl in the movie simply couldn't do what the viewer is supposed to believe she could. All through the movie, we are led to believe that her grandfather is the sole surviver of a tribe, who still believes in the old rites and tries to foist the patriarchal suppression on to the girl. At the end of the movie, we suddenly find a whole chorus line of dancers who are all very well-versed in the rituals. They seem to have been sprouted out of the ground by the superhuman capabilities of the little girl. The movie follows a certain Hollywood pattern which Australian movies at times have been able to avoid, of the Rambo type (the underdog wins by trying hard enough) and the Godfather type (forget what an s.o.b. the bad guy is and never mind the victims).

Seven Beauties (1975)

tragic farce?

[7/10 · 23 August 2011]

Editing, acting, lighting, pacing, they're all very good. The mix of genres makes me wonder. That something funny if not farcical is mixed in with the tragedy of WWII doesn't sit well with me, although I know that some will say that it is the crux. The best part of the movie was perhaps the introduction, the Oh, Yeah part. The scene wherein the two deserters come upon the mass execution has a beautifully grim and nightmarishly terrifying aspect. The whole movie has something of a bad dream, not in the least because of the seemingly realistic scenes which never could have happened and the use of black and white scenes that convey a sense that we have to do with a documentary. Surely, the director is, as Ingmar Bergman said, the magician, and if so, if the audience is being set up, it's only part of the show.